Before You Buy Buru Energy Limited (ASX:BRU), Consider Its Volatility

Simply Wall St
January 3, 2019

If you’re interested in Buru Energy Limited (ASX:BRU), then you might want to consider its beta (a measure of share price volatility) in order to understand how the stock could impact your portfolio.
Modern finance theory considers volatility to be a measure of risk, and there are two main types of price volatility.
The first type is company specific volatility. Investors use diversification across uncorrelated stocks to reduce this kind of price volatility across the portfolio.
The second sort is caused by the natural volatility of markets, overall. For example, certain macroeconomic events will impact (virtually) all stocks on the market.

Some stocks mimic the volatility of the market quite closely, while others demonstrate muted, exagerrated or uncorrelated price movements.
Beta is a widely used metric to measure a stock’s exposure to market risk (volatility). Before we go on, it’s worth noting that Warren Buffett pointed out in his 2014 letter to shareholders that ‘volatility is far from synonymous with risk.’ Having said that, beta can still be rather useful. The first thing to understand about beta is that the beta of the overall market is one.
A stock with a beta below one is either less volatile than the market, or more volatile but not corellated with the overall market. In comparison a stock with a beta of over one tends to be move in a similar direction to the market in the long term, but with greater changes in price.

What BRU’s beta value tells investors

Buru Energy has a five-year beta of 0.97. This is reasonably close to the market beta of 1, so the stock has in the past displayed similar levels of volatility to the overall market.
While history does not always repeat, this may indicate that the stock price will continue to be exposed to market risk, albeit not overly so.
Share price volatility is well worth considering, but most long term investors consider the history of revenue and earnings growth to be more important. Take a look at how Buru Energy fares in that regard, below.

ASX:BRU Income Statement Export January 3rd 19

How does BRU’s size impact its beta?

Buru Energy is a noticeably small company, with a market capitalisation of AU$86m. Most companies this size are not always actively traded.
It doesn’t take much money to really move the share price of a company as small as this one. That makes it somewhat unusual that it has a beta value so close to the overall market.

What this means for you:

Buru Energy has a beta value quite close to that of the overall market. That doesn’t tell us much on its own, so it is probably worth considering whether the company is growing, if you’re looking for stocks that will go up more than the overall market.
This article aims to educate investors about beta values, but it’s well worth looking at
important company-specific fundamentals such as Buru Energy’s financial health and performance track record. I
urge you to continue your research by taking a look at the following:

Other Interesting Stocks: It’s worth checking to see how BRU measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with this free list of prospective options.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.

Simply Wall St is a financial technology startup focused on providing unbiased, high-quality research coverage on every listed company in the world. Our research team consists of equity analysts with a public, market-beating track record. Learn more about the team behind Simply Wall St.

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